under the abyss
by JosephineSilver
Summary: And like Alice with her rabbit hole, down they fell, into the abyss. (Asch, Luke, and the two year interval)
Warmth, light, and the weight of Asch in his arms. Though the sphere that made up his world was swarming with seventh fonons that were rapidly vibrating against each other as Lorelei stirred free for the first time in two thousand years, though his body was breaking down into fonons that also joined the masses, Luke felt no pain. A vague sadness weighed on his chest as he thought of Tear and Guy and all of the others, and of promises that would never be fulfilled, but it didn't hurt.

His grip on Asch's limp body tightened instinctually as he thought this. Asch, too, would not be able to keep his promises. Poor Natalia.

Asch was peaceful like this, face young and oddly vulnerable in a way Luke had never seen nor considered his original to be. The faint creases and lines around his eyes and mouth - stress, anger, frowns? - were smoothed out, almost invisible against the cold pallor of his skin. If it were not for the chalky paleness of his face, the limp stillness of his limbs, he could almost be sleeping.

Still gazing down at Asch's face as the world grew green-lit and speckled with gold, a presence Luke had only ever felt internally and peripherally was suddenly _there_ , a golden mass swarming and swooping around them on the platform formed of a fonon glyph, a faint reassurance brushing against Luke's mind, a call that had the dual meaning of _precious isofons/beloved children,_ singing with a golden truth, the possessive humming clear through the fonon of sound.

 _The world has not disappeared,_ Lorelei's voice was not so much a voice as it 'spoke' to Luke, as it was the fonons that made up the sentience vibrated through different frequencies, hitting different notes, his mind translating the memory of the words Lorelei wished to convey to him as these fonons brushed against his own. _To think the future I saw could be rewritten..._

 _You have earned my utmost respect._ A sensation like a smile, chiming in his mind.

What happened next, Luke was not entirely sure of, and never would be, not even years later. The fonons that had hovered around them as they descended, clinging to Lorelei and his fading isofons, switched pure gold for burning red-gold-orange, a flame-light that whispered songs, lullabies that Luke just couldn't understand - and where they had been peaceful before, drifting calmly in the air, were now _volatile_ , erupting streams of sound and memory that twined around Luke and Asch, reaching upwards, ever upwards, towards freedom, towards the sun. Caught in the middle, the eye of the storm, each atom, each fonon that made up his body torn and aching to follow, Luke fell to his knees (did he still have knees? Already, his fingers were gone, hands not far behind. Maybe he hadn't fallen at all. Maybe his legs had simply faded) and crouched over Asch, an instinctual (if meaningless) move to protect what was already gone against something that he couldn't fight any more than he could truth.

But still, he would protect Asch, for as long as he was physically able (and beyond even that, if he could manage it). Luke had been selfish, had been a brat, a _horrible_ person - had been trying so hard since Akzeriuth, since his eyes had been opened, to be better, to fix things, to place others first. In this - his desire to see the people he cared about above all else, even Asch (who hated him, even if in their last fight they'd... come to terms? Accepted each other's existence? Acknowledged that they were different people?) safe, was entirely selfish, even if it was under the selfless tenet of putting others first, because the others had drilled it into his head plenty of times - saving someone at the cost of your own life was useless, and they certainly didn't want him to go that way. The Tower of Rem had been one thing - it hadn't been a person or a small group of people then, but rather, the _world_. They had accepted it then, choked down their pleas since they couldn't, in all rights, place the life of one person above the rest of the world.

This, however... this would be different. He had told them to go and leave the breaking down Eldrant because he wanted them safe. He had promised Tear a lie and given her false hope because he had wanted her smile to be his last memory of her. He had pretended not to hear that last whisper of hers on the breeze, was still not letting himself think on it (it hurt too much). He had freed Lorelei for Lorelei's sake, even though he knew the price, because his time was running out anyway and Lorelei hurting _hurt_.

The only unnecessary thing was Asch's death - but now, with the fonon of memory and healing a tangible atmosphere of red-gold power around him, Luke knew that he could fix it. It would just cost him his own life in turn.

That was fine. Akzeriuth, Sheridan, Asch - it didn't matter. If his death could bring them back, even just the one person - then Luke would gladly give it. Tear had once upon a time tried to impress the seriousness, the fatality, of death to him, believing he didn't truly understand what he was saying, and that assumption was both true and false. Luke _knew_ death. Knew what it was to take a life, to decide that he had more of a right to existence then his opponent. Knew what it felt like to choke down bile as the thick warmth of arterial blood congealed on his blade, as the ringing gold of his hyperresonance died down and all that was left was the memory of his victims final screams and fear, echoing throughout the seventh fonon. Luke knew everything there could be to know about death, except his own. Maybe it was time to find out.

Ion had chosen this, too. Had chosen to sacrifice what little time he had left with his loved ones to lengthen the lifespan of one of his loved ones. If Luke didn't do this now, then neither he nor Asch would be able to return home, back to their family and back to their promises.

Asch wouldn't thank him for this, he knew. Would hate him even more, probably. This was, in no way, logical.

But, in possibly some of the only wise words Asch had ever said, spat out amidst a wash of bitter venom, this wasn't about logic.

Calling out to Lorelei, whose presence still lingered for now, eager to return to the fonbelt but unwilling to leave the _precious isofons_ alone at their end, Luke focused on one single wish, and one single sadness.

 _Asch_ , he chimed in the same way Lorelei had been communicating, throwing all the memories he had of his original out at the base fonon frequency they all three shared.

Lorelei's acknowledgement was a mournful one, the low tolling of a funeral bell.

 _Denial_ , Luke shot back, a discordant bellow of piano keys being slammed with a hand. _It can be done_.

 _Unwilling to lose precious isofon/beloved child_ , Lorelei whistled. _Will not trade._

Asch was already dead, his fonons would join Lorelei's in the fonbelt, and Luke's would soon follow, Luke translated from that. If Lorelei were to interfere - were to let Asch live once again then, even once Asch went to the fonbelt upon his death (hopefully many years into the future), Luke _would not_ join him. Luke would cease to exist as anything other than memories, engraved into the seventh fonon. Lorelei didn't want that. As it was now, both would die, but that was simply leaving the physical world behind, as they were Lorelei's isofons and seventh fonists, besides. This way, Lorelei could have both of his _precious isofons/beloved children_ by his side. The other way, he would lose one permanently. Unacceptable.

 _There has to be a way,_ the frantic ticking of a clocks gears as time melted away to nothing. _Something_.

 _Hesitance_ , like the drawn out silence before the orchestra swells. _Maybe/Hope/Dangerous,_ faint violins strings playing three different melodies in discordant harmony.

 _Anything_ , Luke thought, _determination_ like the shredding of a fonic guitars strings. _I'll do anything._

Lorelei seemed to think on it for a moment, before playing back the memory of Luke's _determination_ back within his own mind, fainter and more warped through the thoughts of the sentience.

 _Cling to that feeling,_ Lorelei spoke, and for the first time it _was_ a voice, deep and booming and overlaid faintly with a choir of chimes. _You will need it, my precious isofons._

And then the world was falling once more, the red-gold fonons were leaving them, streaming upwards to the pinprick above that was the ever fading light of day, and all that was there was Luke, Asch, and the faint sense of Lorelei.

 _When it is time,_ Lorelei spoke, _I will return to collect you._

Everything was fonons, then - first through to six, with seventh present at all time, Rem and Shadow warring as Luke's vision swarmed with light and darkness.

The air was cool now, and earthy, like a long tunnel, and there was no platform beneath Luke's feet, no force field around him to protect from falling debris.

 _Sleep_ , a voice commanded, and a wall of purple-dark eyes were staring at him from the inside out, invading his mind. _**Sleep**_.

Upon Shadow's command, Luke slept.

And together, he and Asch _fell_.


End file.
